Back in the days of the Cold War, when the spectre of World War III hung over our heads in the 1980s, there were quite a lot of movies produced (mainly for TV), especially in the mid-1980s, about what it might have been like.

I have seen several myself:

1) "World War III"--(year unknown)--basically a straight WWIII war movie based on a European theatre war, and which ended with nuclear-armed Soviet bombers invading Alaskan airspace.

2) "The Day After"--(1983, ABC-TV movie)--this very controversial movie depicted a nuclear attack on a midwestern US city (Kansas City, MO, and its suburbs and surrounding ICBM fields). Very graphic, shows people vaporizing as their skeletons flouresce like neon tubes! Also shows the horrific aftermath, with deadly fallout and the disintegration of social order. As I watched this movie, I thought: Could this have been my hometown, Fort Wayne, IN? I have this one on VHS.

3) "Red Dawn"--(1984)--Starts out as a normal school day in the western USA, and all of a sudden, Soviet paratroopers start coming out of the sky; a Soviet invasion of the USA! A band of high schoolers, calling themselves the Wolverines (after their school sports mascot), wage guerilla warfare against the occupying Soviet forces in their area. Would a Soviet invasion of the USA really have been a possibility?

There is another Cold War-era (1980s) TV miniseries I just read about on Wikipedia: "Amerika". It describes a Soviet occupation of the United States; the movie takes place 10 years after the sudden, bloodless takeover of the USA (after Soviet nukes exploded in the high atmosphere, blanketing the US with EMP); it describes a largely demoralised, apathetic American population under the Soviet occupation heel, and the former USA divided up into occupation zones (eg. Indiana is part of "Ameritekh", one of several zones), and a holiday, Lincoln's Day, replaces the 4th of July, and Communist propaganda is taught daily in former American schools.

Does the premise of "Amerika" sound like it would have been a realistic possibility? I can just imagine my local airport, FWA, having both Russian and English signage, and Soviet "Aeroflot-Amerika" aircraft! ("Aeroflot-Amerika" being the only airline service available, for those permitted to travel, in a Soviet-occupied America).

What Cold War/WWIII movies did you see when you were living back then? Please share what you saw, and what you thought of it!

SmithAir747

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made... (Psalm 139:14)

I really enjoyed Last of the Mohicans. It used to baffle me why this film hasn't been held in greater esteem. I was blown away by this film when I first saw it, and knew quite a few people who snuck back to the theater several times for more. The beautiful and harsh scenery, dreamlike photography, sudden explosions of bloody violence, and raging, over-the-top passion amid a collapsing world create a pure emotional rush. This is melodrama at its best, which means that it can really stir your emotions if you let it.

Dude. One word: Threads. Here's what http://www.allmovie.com has to say: "Immeasurably more terrifying than any fictional horror film ever produced, Threads is arguably the most emotionally shattering piece of speculative fiction ever committed to celluloid." Got that? Not a reviewer, this is an objectively compiled database of film. Immeasurably more terrifying than any fictional horror film ever produced. This is not an exaggeration. Let's see what else Allmovie have to say. "Produced for the BBC in the wake of mounting Cold War tensions, this thoroughly detailed portrayal of the violent destruction of the delicate and fragile threads of society through nuclear devastation is unrelentingly bleak, and much like the graphic depiction of the effects of radiation and nuclear fallout, slowly eats away at its audience as it relentlessly and unflinchingly details the horrifying demise of humankind for an agonizing 13 years following World War III. As each horrifying act unfolds, viewers are jarringly reminded of the casual indifference to which people approach war as they go about their day-to-day activities, constantly taking for granted not only their loved ones, but such simple things as food, electricity, and basic human interaction. In the face of the darkest hour in human history, Threads suggests that humans must approach nature and science with reverence and a certain amount of fear lest it unexpectedly blow up in our faces after it's already too late. Definitely not for the squeamish or faint of heart (though it could be said that it should be required viewing, especially to political leaders, as a reminder of the horrors that humans could have and still can inflict upon themselves), Threads offers none of the hopeful and comforting sentiments of its popular literary counterpart (Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon) and ends on a note that will be ringing in viewers' consciences for weeks to come." That it does folks, that it does. That final frame will haunt you for months, and really, forever.

Wargames... not really cold war but it did occur in that era, 1st computer hacker movie really :P

War to lose... weird made for TV movie about a soviet invasion of a US island in the Pacific from submarines

The Russians Are Coming! good for a laugh, good story too

The Typhoon Experiment, another made for TV thing, nothing to do with subs, basically Russian pilot defects and brings story that Soviet 1st strike is planned, big pre-emptive strike planned by US, defector is a spy trying to start war, blahblahblah

Also: Hunt for Red October, meh, Clancy, needed a different Ryan
K-19, not bad...
Hostile Waters... true based version of Red October and fairly good

probably more, but those will do

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

This cold war thriller is set on a destroyer off Greenland shadowing a Soviet submarine. Stars Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier and really sets a scary tone of cold war conflict, on a personal level. The Destroyer commander vs the sub commander.

Dr Strangelove-argueable one of the best
Wargames
Red Dawn-doesn't anybody remember the lessons of that movie and how they apply to todays terror enviorment?
Red Zone Cuba-The MST3K version
K-19
I would Argue Crimson Tide could also be considered a cold war movie.
The Hunt for Red October-Part of that was filmed in Alaska
The Day After
Torn Curtian-Hitchcock-nuff said
And I would argue that Canadian Bacon is also a cold war movie.

Quoting DeltaGator (Reply 17):GoldenEye counts since it was Russia vs. the USSR it still had leftover bad guys and KGB or GRU officers gone mercenary plus the Russian mob.

Good! I love that movie! (And the N64 videogame, lol.) And don't forget all that left-over USSR military hardware...actually, by that logic, the pre-titles sequence in Tomorrow Never Dies might count, but that's a bit of a stretch, lol.

Quoting DeltaGator (Reply 17):And damn you for putting in "The Spy Who Loved Me" because now I have that darn Carly Simon song in my head. Looks like I need to go post that in a different thread running right now.

Hahaha! Actually, as I was typing up that list, I got Sheena Easton stuck in my head with her ethereal FYEO song...maybe I should head over to the same thread and retroactively plunk 'er down, lol.

Airwave

When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.

Quoting SmithAir747 (Thread starter):) "Red Dawn"--(1984)--Starts out as a normal school day in the western USA, and all of a sudden, Soviet paratroopers start coming out of the sky; a Soviet invasion of the USA! A band of high schoolers, calling themselves the Wolverines (after their school sports mascot), wage guerilla warfare against the occupying Soviet forces in their area. Would a Soviet invasion of the USA really have been a possibility?

I have been trying to get the name of this film for ages.
I love this movie

Fred October? Is that Ivan's evil twin? Or a salute to Fred Thompson's quote in the movie "Son, a Russian doesn't take a dump without a plan."?

Excellent adaptation of the book with the minor changes from the book not affecting the outcome or drastically changing the story like Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and the horrible Sum of All Fears.

Quoting Trekster (Reply 21):I have been trying to get the name of this film for ages.
I love this movie

Small tidbit of trivia. Red Dawn was the first movie to be rated PG-13.

"If you can't delight in the misery of others then you don't deserve to be a college football fan."